I was just listening to the entire story on the 6pm (radio 4) news. Finding it hard to come up with some helpful comment about this tragic tale, but here are some of my thoughts all the same.

Wouldn't have been much bothered if the person on the bike (let's avoid the word 'cyclist' perhaps?) had got a custodial sentence. But - the public does not appear to be clamouring for that. Let us suppose that the law has been justly dispensed in this case.

I cannot see how any good can emerge, for anyone, out of this dreadful business. The bereaved family have lost a loved one who won't come back. The hapless culprit has a criminal record and will live with the remorse - if he is capable of feeling remorse - for the rest of his miserable life. And the world of cycling has acquired a stain on its reputation that will be hard to dispel.

UNLESS:

Anything that can get cyclists off the pavements - any heightened sense of urgency about this - even enforcement: well, will this work in favour of cycling as a whole or will it work against it? I know my own views. I cannot hide my feelings: although not bothered about children of course, I cringe whenever I see an adult on the pavement, alongside a road with little or no traffic as often as not. I dislike shared-use cycle/ped paths and avoid them as often as not. Cases such as this may discourage the creation of more of them. However, how many cyclists ('POB's) would we lose to cycling, if pavement riding were altogether eliminated?

I was just listening to the entire story on the 6pm (radio 4) news. Finding it hard to come up with some helpful comment about this tragic tale, but here are some of my thoughts all the same.

Wouldn't have been much bothered if the person on the bike (let's avoid the word 'cyclist' perhaps?) had got a custodial sentence. But - the public does not appear to be clamouring for that. Let us suppose that the law has been justly dispensed in this case.

I cannot see how any good can emerge, for anyone, out of this dreadful business. The bereaved family have lost a loved one who won't come back. The hapless culprit has a criminal record and will live with the remorse - if he is capable of feeling remorse - for the rest of his miserable life. And the world of cycling has acquired a stain on its reputation that will be hard to dispel.

UNLESS:

Anything that can get cyclists off the pavements - any heightened sense of urgency about this - even enforcement: well, will this work in favour of cycling as a whole or will it work against it? I know my own views. I cannot hide my feelings: although not bothered about children of course, I cringe whenever I see an adult on the pavement, alongside a road with little or no traffic as often as not. I dislike shared-use cycle/ped paths and avoid them as often as not. Cases such as this may discourage the creation of more of them. However, how many cyclists ('POB's) would we lose to cycling, if pavement riding were altogether eliminated?

It's a tragic tale and condolences must go out to the family & friends of the person killed. It's right that the guy who did it end up in court and no, I'd not be up in arms protesting if he'd been put behind bars immediately.

BUT - I can't help contrasting this case with the average nine per day killed on our roads, who are not killed by cyclists, and who barely make it to local media let alone the main national news on BBC1. The bottom line is the big killers are motor drivers, not cyclists, yet the motorised killers rate barely a mention. Elephant in the room springs to mind.

It's a tragic tale and condolences must go out to the family & friends of the person killed. It's right that the guy who did it end up in court and no, I'd not be up in arms protesting if he'd been put behind bars immediately.

BUT - I can't help contrasting this case with the average nine per day killed on our roads, who are not killed by cyclists, and who barely make it to local media let alone the main national news on BBC1. The bottom line is the big killers are motor drivers, not cyclists, yet the motorised killers rate barely a mention. Elephant in the room springs to mind.

The bottom line is the big killers are motor drivers, not cyclists, yet the motorised killers rate barely a mention. Elephant in the room springs to mind.

Click to expand...

How very true: and you have exactly answered your own question methinks. Road deaths due to motorists are such a big truth that people don't notice it is happening all around them. (Except the few who get directly involved of course). It is so obvious that it gets totally overlooked.

Anyone read the third of Douglas Adam's Hitchiker's Guide series (Life, the Universe and Everything)? The Somebody Else's Problem field? A sort of spell which can be cast over some object, which makes some anomaly so glaringly obvious that people just totally fail to notice it's there: their eyes simply skate over it? My view is that this is based on fact. Albeit a purely imaginary concept, in the middle of a hilariously satirical SF novel, there really is such a thing. And road deaths are a glaring example: at least to your average person.